NRA delenda est

The National Rifle Association was once a good thing. Back in the 19th century it encouraged firearms ownership and marksmanship. For a long time it was the place to go for high quality training.

I used to be an NRA member. I quit a couple of decades ago.

While the NRA was still good on training, I finally noticed other things. Well, thing; fundraising. To fight “gun control.” A lot of fundraising. I could get 3-4 mailings a week.

Yet somehow we got the Public Safety and Recreational Firearms Use Protection Act (“assault weapons ban”), Brady waiting periods followed by (replaced with at federal level) preemptively-prove-your-innocence checks, “gun-free” school zones, Project Exile (shifting unconstitutional firearms cases to federal court for more severe penalties), and more.

And well before that, the NRA went along with the NFA ’34 (registration/taxation), GCA ’68 (no more mail order), and FOPA ’86 (no more new NFA items for you).

Like I say, I quit back in the ’90s when I realized that the NRA just used the fear of gun control as a money-making tool. The NRA needs gun control to “fight.”

They need it so much that they helped write an “assault weapons” ban for a city in which I lived; my ten-round-fixed-magazine SKS was illegal. The NRA said they had to do that or someone else would have written a worse law. As was, that law was so bad the state supreme court tossed it in its entirety.

When I lived in New Hampshire, RKBA activists spent years working for Constitutional carry. We finally lined up enough — too often reluctant — votes to pass it and a governor who said he’d sign it.

Lo and behold, the NRA sent in a lobbyist for the first time in a decade who told the reluctant Republicans that the NRA did not support the bill. That gave the weasels the necessary wiggle room to render the bill “Inexpedient To Legislate;” they killed it in an after hours session after the bill’s backers went home to sleep, believing it was passing, unknowing of the NRA’s backstabbing. (The NRA later claimed that never happened; that they merely told the law-makers that the bill needed to duplicate federal law language regarding prohibited persons. Legislators explaining themselves to pissed off constituents gave my version of the story.)

The NRA watched the concealed carry insurance industry grow, and decided to try it, too. Among their first actions was to ban their competition from their annual gathering.

Skipping plenty of other despicable NRA actions and inactions, Some Asshole shoots up a Las Vegas country music festival in a “gun-free” zone. Even as early police statements said the shooter used at least one fully automatic rifle and two “bump-fire” stocks, the NRA sharpened its knife and taped targets to honest gun owners’ backs.

The National Rifle Association preemptively surrendered by calling for the ATF to reevaluate bump/slide-fire stocks and regulate them as NFA items. Because they help shooters pull the trigger a bunch of times pretty fast.

I expect a flurry of fundraiser flyers in the mail: “Help the NRA/ILA fight the DC Bump Ban.”

Set aside the surrender-signaling for a few moments. Go back to the part where the NRA said they want the ATF to regulate stocks. Think on that.

Way back when, the original National Firearms Act draft called for hand guns to be regulated just like machine guns, suppressors, short-barrel shotguns, yadda yadda. It was unpassable that way, so hand guns were stripped out. We were left with — still unconstitutional — restrictions set by Congress, which at least pretends to be answerable to the people.

The NRA, in contrast, is calling for the ATF to have the power to arbitrarily add stuff to the NFA. You know, the guys who brought us Fast & Furious resulting in deaths in Mexico, the United States, and France. The folks who are apparently answerable to nobody.

Next question: Are you going to scribble down your credit card number or write a check to the NRA/ILA when you get those inevitable flyers to “Help the NRA/ILA Fight the ATF”?

For a long time after I quit the NRA, I said they’d never get another penny from me until they learned to respect the Second Amendment. More recently I said they have proven themselves an unredeemable deadly enemy and will never get another penny, period.

That is not enough. I am tired of the NRA presenting itself as speaking for all gun owners. They don’t speak for me, and likely not you.

The NRA claims 5 million members (the numbers are questionable). Estimates of American gun owners range from 60 million to as many as 120 million. So best case scenario for the NRA is that they actually speak for 8.3% of gun owners. Maybe a mere 4%.

I know of people who’ve “joined” the NRA only because it was a requirement to use a specific shooting range, or other facility.

So here’s this big money group representing a tiny fraction of gun owners using its resources to screw us all over, trampling rights, and begging for more.

It is no longer enough just to stop supporting the bastards. The NRA/ILA have hundreds of millions of dollars in assets. Every principled member could (and should) quit today, and they can continue to fund human/civil rights violations for years.

The NRA, as an organization, must die. I suggest civil suits under 18 U.S. Code § 241 – Conspiracy against rights. Those who have donated to the NRA Foundation can sue for return of their donations on the grounds that the NRA misrepresented how donations would be used.

As for salaries, fifty-six people in the organization earned more than $100,000 in 2010—and 10 made more than $250,000. Lapierre does not top the list. Kayne B. Robinson, the executive director of general operations does. He was paid just over $1 million. Lapierre was second, pulling in $970,000 in reportable and estimated comp.

Chris W. Cox, the executive director of the group’s lobbying efforts, was third. He earned just over $666,000.

This was in 2012; The NRA has become a vehicle for some fat pay checks, I wonder how many of those fat paychecks even donate to the cause themselves like all of us peons did?

I am a Patron level member of the NRA, I also was a petitioner to remove Grover from the board and not one member of the board supported that effort (mainly because Grover brings money into the NRA and that is what the NRA is really about).

I have not donated for years (I use to be a large supporter of the Friends of the NRA because I thought that real $$ went to our local shooting youth groups, man was I wrong about that, again most of it when back to national and I suspect to the big paychecks) and I intend to continue that habit of not donating. If there was a lawsuit I would contemplate joining the lawsuit.

However I would rather the NRA change than be destroyed but I don’t see that in the cards so at least I will no longer donate and be a part of the charade.

I was a certified NRA instructor for firearms and self defense over the last ten years. The NRA training material was never truly adequate, but could be supplemented, so I went with it because it was nationally recognized. There was never much support for trainers from the NRA HQ, and very little anywhere else. The state NRA “rep” was glad to tell you all about how wonderful the NRA was, but had little to give otherwise.

We were basically on our own, on our honor and at our own expense (which isn’t all bad, of course). Then the NRA dropped what little support there was for instructors… and tried to slip in the insane on line video replacement for instructors a little later.

A great many instructors quit at that point, including me. I have not really even looked at the NRA attempts to scoop up this shit pile and attempt to sell it to us as chocolate ice cream… but I assure you, I’m not buying any of it. They trashed their credibility a long time ago, and they aren’t getting it back.

Sure would love to see some other outfit set up and manage a GOOD training program that would cover all aspects of gun use and types in a straight forward way. Trainers would come out of retirement and new trainers could be brought on board quickly. And all would work best if there was zero political aspect to any of it. No fund raising, no aggrandizement of the “leaders” on TV or in print. Just firearms and self defense training.

MamaLiberty,
I was caught up in the web of the NRA for a time, as well, but got out when I saw them for who they are. I also took my CCW course in Michigan, and the NRA is an approved training method for getting your CCW permit in our state. So our instructors followed their literature somewhat closely. However, the instructors in the place I took my class were better than that.

They not only followed the NRA’s materials, but then they would go on to say things like ” Now, the NRA says that you should keep your guns locked up in a safe, along with your ammo, but then how would you access them in case of a break-in late at night.” Then they would go on to discuss the best way to balance the needs of different individuals, who could have no possible young children in the home, to those who have not only their children, but also the neighborhood kids running in and out, and everything in between. So while they taught from the state mandated propaganda, they peppered it with common sense ideas that they had learned from their experience as not only people who carried guns, but also from military and law enforcement backgrounds. And they also would draw out ideas from the class so we would be forced to think about our own needs and our own best practices in our homes. For while I am safe to keep a loaded gun in my bedroom, in my night stand or dresser drawer, there are many who are not, who may have young children with friends that must be taken into account, and plans kept in place that ensure the safety of those with whom you have greater chance of contact than someone in my shoes.

In Michigan, I believe that we must do 4 hours of classroom and 4 hours of range time. For the classroom time, our instructors brought in a retired cop and a lawyer to go over the legal aspects of carrying and actually having to shoot someone. The retired cop had fallen out of a tree while bow hunting, and so was injured badly, breaking his back and being forced to retire on disability, and was in pain so much that he was on narcotic pain killers daily. What impressed me was the fact that knowing what he did, he would not carry a gun. He explained that if he used a gun to defend himself, even if it were a ” good” shooting, due to the fact that he was under the influence of narcotics, he would get sued in court, and most likely lose everything he owned.

And I also agree with you on wishing that there were much more, and better trainers working, who were close to me, that I could afford. I don’t wish to put any kind of training down, but for me, there is less need to be able to enter a shooting house and sweep it for armed terrorists than there is a need to take me from the level I am, ( shitty) to the next level, ( not quite as shitty).
I know that there are many instructors around here, but the problem is just that. Some are affiliated with a gun store, some are on their own, using whatever method of advertising that they can, often bragging on their military or law enforcement background as their qualifications. What would be better would be if they could have some kind of outfit, such as the NRA used to be, that could vouch for them, and simply be listing that outfit after their name, we could at least know that they met a certain standard, kind of like the Underwriters Laboratory used to mean when you were buying a piece of electronics, like a T.V., or a lamp.
Pat Hines, I don’t know for sure if there are other groups of Jews out there trying to fight the loss of gun rights in America, in any kind of real and meaningful way, but I do know for certain that the Zelman Partisans are the least compromising of any group that is active. And while I have never met any of those who work so hard at this effort, I have seen the results, and am impressed. These people are clearly impassioned, intelligent, and hard working, for a cause that Aaron Zelman also felt the same way towards.